Healing Aids and Practices

Healthy Diet

Vegetables
Melanie Kuipers

“Weston Price showed us that the fundamental cause of disease is inadequate nutrition.” (Weston A. Price Foundation) When the body is not getting the correct nutrients, it is going to be more susceptible to illness of any kind. Eating whole foods (organic, if possible) that are compatible with your body type, eliminating allergens, adequate clean water and salt, fresh air, sunlight, and connection with the earth are all necessary for optimal health. Please see Dr. Terry Wahls’ video, Minding Your Mitochondria, for a very compelling presentation on the importance of supplying the body with adequate nutrition in order to strengthen the nervous system. Dr. Wahls healed her multiple sclerosis by improving her diet dramatically.

Which is the best diet? You need to find a diet that works for you, individually. There are disagreements amongst dietary experts about which diet is ideal for humans, based upon experience, observation, and analysis of human physiology and biochemistry. You will find good arguments supporting the idea that the ideal diet for humans consists only of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and grains, and you will also find good arguments supporting the idea that an omnivorous diet, including some animal flesh, raw and cooked vegetables and grains, is ideal. There is also the idea that we should eat what our ancestors ate, due to our genetic heritage, and that is a form of biochemical individuality: our bodies may be genetically adapted to specific foods, and these may include animal flesh, animal products, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

My current belief is that humans should ideally eat foods made from raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds, but we certainly don’t live in an ideal world, therefore, I know that such a diet will not work for everyone. Ideal food sources are difficult to find, and high personal and environmental stress might make such diet impossible to survive on for most people, even if ideal food sources were available. In addition to food availability, biochemical individuality, personal health conditions, climate, cost, and other factors need to be considered when designing a diet.

My ex-wife is a perfect example: at one time she attempted to become a vegetarian, but became progressively physically weaker, and eventually started dreaming of chickens and turkey! When she started including large amounts of animal flesh in her diet, her body became stronger. Was her failure on the vegetarian diet due to a poor choice of vegetarian foods, or did she have a real need to eat animal flesh? I don’t know, but I do know that my ex-wife had a need for very different food than myself. My ex-wife has Type O blood, and according to one theory, people with Type O blood require animal flesh in the diet for optimal health. There may be some truth to the idea that blood type determines what food is best for a person, but I know of people who have the same blood type as my ex-wife and thrive on a vegan diet, so I think that basing a diet solely on blood type is too simple an approach, but it may be a good place to start.

However, the dietary experts do seem to agree that including a large amount of raw fruits and vegetables (especially greens) in the diet is generally a good idea, and that our food should be as close to nature as possible. Whole, organically grown or raised sources of food are always better than highly processed or refined foods containing pesticides, hormones, additives and preservatives, that have been pasteurized, homogenized or irradiated. The diet should be balanced, to include all of the nutrients the body needs but not more. Many people have dramatically improved their health by improving their diet.

Although I do believe that a raw vegan diet is ideal, I have decided that it is not for me. The best diet for me right now is a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet with a high amount (30% to 50%) of raw vegan foods, although I do eat very few dairy products. This gives me the health, flexibility and variety I need while keeping food preparation relatively simple. I believe that maintaining a balanced raw vegan diet is much more difficult than maintaining a balanced lacto-ovo vegetarian diet. Although my chosen diet is heavier than a pure raw vegan diet, I believe this heaviness can be compensated for with intensive spiritual practices, especially meditation.

I strongly believe that you are what you eat. The health of the body and mind is determined to a large degree by what we eat: with that in mind, eating pure and complete foods that can be efficiently assimilated by the body is best, but I believe which foods meet these criteria must be determined for each individual. However, I believe the “mental diet” is even more important: our thoughts, feelings, words and actions determine our health and happiness to a large degree. Having a strong support system and loving connection with others is a major key to healing.

Paramahansa Yogananda, who’s Guru is the great sage Swami Sri Yukteswar, wrote: “My guru was a vegetarian. Before embracing monkhood, however, he had eaten eggs and fish. His advice to students was to follow any simple diet which proved suited to one’s constitution.” Sri Yukteswar was not fanatical about the vegan diet, and took biochemical individuality into consideration with this dietary advice. Paramahansa Yogananda did not forbid his disciples from eating animal flesh except for beef and pork, but he did discourage it. The most important thing is to find a diet that works for you, and that may include some animal flesh or animal products. But unless animal flesh is organic, there is a good chance that it is low quality from a factory farm. Also there are the deceptions of meat glue, flavored meats and meat substitutions.

Leaky gut syndrome is very common, and is the cause of a huge range of health problems. The leaky gut must be healed before truly vibrant health is possible. Karen Brimeyer’s Leaky Gut Cure seems to be one of the best guides for healing a leaky gut. According to Karen, “Your gut health is the biggest and most important factor for your general health and wellbeing... In fact, poor gut health is responsible for up to 90% of chronic health symptoms and conditions!”

Eliminating allergens from your diet or environment will reduce the stress on your body. There are various ways to determine what you are allergic to. My wife discovered the food that I was allergic to by using an advanced form of kinesiology (muscle testing).

Drinking plenty of relatively pure water and consuming natural salt is incredibly important. Many diseases are caused by dehydration and salt deficiency. A body without adequate water is weak; a body without adequate salt is weak. I highly recommend the book, Water: For Health, for Healing, for Life, by the late Dr. Fereydoon Batmanghelidj, and also his website, WaterCure.com. A minimum of 2 litres of relatively pure water is a good guide for daily water consumption, but the amount you need depends upon many factors, including climate and the type of food you eat. Lumière de Sel Himalayan Crystal Salt and Celtic Sea Salt are the best sources of unrefined natural salt. If you can’t afford expensive natural salt, try using inexpensive additive-free pickling salt instead. Consuming 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of salt per litre of water may help your body function better. See also WaterCure2.org for more excellent information on the health benefits of salt water. Joey Korn sells Celtic Sea Salt at great prices. You should also consume a multivitamin that contains iodine because sea salt does not contain enough iodine.

I prefer to use water energizers rather than water filters for purifying water because I believe they are much more effective. Water energizers remove the harmful subtle energies from water and restore its molecular structure to its most beneficial form. Structured water has properties for health that no filtered or reconstituted water can have. Water energizers are available from the Centre for Implosion Research and World Living Water Systems. These water energizers may not suitable for many people with electrical sensitivity because of the energy they emit. However, the products from the Natural Action Water company are absolutely safe as they use plastic forms to, “replicate the action of a mountain stream and deliver naturally structured, ‘memory’ free water to you.” Please phone Holland Franklin at 800-563-5501 for more information.

Another essential nutrient for health is sunlight. Humans require adequate sunlight for optimal mental and physical health, and apparently most of us in Western society are receiving much less than optimal sun exposure, especially in the northern climates. Vitamin D produced by the body as a result of sun exposure plays a very important role in the body for immunity and general health. Dr. Mercola has an excellent introductory video on this topic. I believe that there is much more benefit to sun exposure than Vitamin D, but that is a very important aspect. “The most important thing to keep in mind if you opt for oral supplementation is that you only want to supplement with natural vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), which is human vitamin D. Do NOT use the synthetic and highly inferior vitamin D2.”

Healthy energy from Mother Earth by methods of grounding or earthing can also be considered another essential nutrient for optimal health. For more information, see the section on Correcting Energy Flows.

Other nutrients that are commonly deficient in the diet include Magnesium, Iodine and Silicon.

I have had a long search for the ultimate supplement. There are a few exceptional broad-spectrum supplement products that I have found:

The above supplements are great, but my personal opinion is that drinking freshly squeezed vegetable juice is as good or better for improving and maintaining health than any of the supplements listed above. My health has improved dramatically since I started drinking vegetable juice regularly. I believe that many health problems can be overcome by consuming freshly squeezed vegetable juice and other simple but high quality foods, whether they are animal products or not. I eat a lot of good quality eggs, avocados, non-GMO soy, fruit, raw nuts and seeds. My choices for grains are quinoa, millet, chia seeds, rice and organic whole wheat bread. Reducing my consumption of dairy products seems to have really helped me. Another secret to my improving health is the probiotic Primal Defense by Garden of Life, which has dramatically improved my ability to assimilate nutrients and has probably helped me in many other ways also.

Exercise Regularly